Nightmares
by Keyofdestinyy
Summary: Hope cannot sleep, having been terrified by Vanille and Fang's scary stories. Should he simply wait for morning to arise? Or try and return to the realm of sleep?


The silverette tossed and turned in his bed. Muffling his groans with a pillow to stop himself from waking the whole house up. He struggled to sleep, his small body thrashing around, his mind consumed by a seemingly never ending nightmare. The boy screamed out, jumping up from the bed.

The nightmare was over.

He was shaking, his face and skin covered in a thin layer of sweat.

"_Is it over? Was it a dream?_" He wondered, shaking his head slowly, a hand placed gently on his forehead as he sat up properly in the dark room, almost pitch black.

He reached over to his nightlight and cautiously turned it on, praying that he was reaching in the right direction.

He squinted automatically, shielding his pale green eyes from the bright light.

He checked the time. "_It must be at least 7.00 or 8.00 by now..._"

The young silverette had to check twice, not believing his own eyes at first. His alarm clock stayed exactly the same, no matter how many times the boy blinked or rubbed his eyes.

"_2.00 AM? Is it really that early?_" He muttered quietly to himself, laying back down on the bed.

"_This is going to be a __long__ night..._"

Hope then turned the light back off, too bright for him at that time.

His eyes flickered but he refused to go to sleep, believing that if he went back to sleep the nightmare would return.

He sighed, scolding himself for listening to Vanille and Fang's stories.

* * *

Only several hours ago, Vanille and Fang came up with the idea of telling scary stories, a mischievous look on their faces when they told their friends about it. Hopes ex-arch nemesis, Snow Villiers. Had no trouble with that, announcing that he wasn't afraid of anything. Clearly Lightning had no other choice but to join in too, always following in Snow's footsteps to show him that she could do anything he could, but better.

"_Tch__. Try not to use the word hero in this story, Snow._" Lightning joked, making fun of the blonde's signature phrase.

Lightning refused to let Serah participate, insisting that she could only listen. Light didn't need to convince Hope not to join in, he had already made up his mind.

"_Come on kiddo, it'll be fun! Just join in, what could go wrong?_" Snow protested, trying to get his silver haired ally to change his decision.

There was no point in even trying, Hope's mind was made up. He would listen, that was all.

* * *

Snow began his story, insisting that he went first.

As all cheesy and _not-at-all-scary_ stories began he started with the overly used quote: "_At the dead of nigh_t".

Fang snickered, muttering under her breath that it was exactly what she expected from the blonde haired buffoon.

Snow ignored her and continued his story. As the time went by it seemed that his story was going on forever. Serah stayed listening loyally as everyone else yawned, their eyes flickering as they struggled to remain awake. Lightning was long gone by then, fast asleep between Serah and Hope. The blonde took that as a sign of victory and decided to claim the title of "Scare lord", lifting his fist up in triumph as usual.

Next was Fang, making her story as gruesome and dark as possible, causing Serah to cover her ears in fear. The young silverette was not too bothered by this, finding it more interesting than terrifying. But that's just..._Hope's strange interests._

Only Serah and Hope were left awake, although the pinkette was already beginning to yawn, giving in to the temptation of sleep. A few moments later they saw Serah curl up next to Snow, falling asleep almost instantly.

"_Heh, didn't think you'd last this long, short stuff._" Snow exclaimed grinning at the silverette as he yawned loudly, turning to Vanille and giving her a thumbs up. The sign that she could start with her story. Vanille was by far the dark horse, causing Snow to shiver within a matter of minutes. Even Hope felt a rush of fear coursing through his veins, goosebumps forming on his slender arms.

Once she was finished, they all went to sleep, clearly not wanting to hear a second story.

Except for Hope of course, since the poor boy couldn't sleep, too terrified to return to the realm of dreams, Vanille's stories whirling around in his mind.

* * *

The silverette was getting desperate. If he didn't get at least a few hours of sleep, he would probably snap and punch snow in the face like the last time he had nightmares. It could easily be excused, and it's not exactly like Hope's punches were incredibly painful. It's just that Hope felt really bad afterwards, apologizing over and over again.

_'I could just go to Vanille's room and share with her..._' He had always slept easier when sharing a bed with someone else. And he and Vanille were friends, she wouldn't mind, would she?

Hope thought over it for several minutes, debating over what her response would be.

Eventually he gave in, stand up and leaving his room, entering the corridor of the slightly large house.

It was even darker out there, if that was possible, which made it harder for the sleepy silverette to see where he was going.

After a while of fumbling around the halls, trying to figure out which room was Vanille's, Hope finally found it, knocking politely first.

It took a while, but eventually the redhead replied, her voice faint and sleepy since he had just woken her up.

"_Hello?_"

"_I-it's me, Hope._"

Vanille's room was identical to Hope's, but instead, she had a lamp beside her, keeping the room nice and brightly lit in its embrace.

After entering the room, automatically noticing Vanille sat up in bed, sleepily rubbing her eyes, Hope stood awkwardly by the door, clearly having noticed that he had woken her up.

"_So, what is it?_" The sleepy l'cie asked, she was wearing her pajamas, a light pink tank top with white shorts.

Hope didn't reply, slightly embarrassed all of a sudden.

Vanille could tell what the problem was, chuckling slightly as she patted the vacant area next to her on her bed.

"_A nightmare? C'mon, sit._"

He nodded before cautiously sitting beside the redhead, his hair slightly messed up from the constant fretting from before.

_"C-Can I sleep with you tonight?"_

Vanille smiled sweetly, pulling the covers over the two of them.

_"Of course you can, silly!"_

_"Th-thanks, Vanille."_

The silverette lay down properly on the bed, now under the covers with Vanille, he fell asleep almost instantly, no longer able to keep his tired eyes open.

_"Goodnight...Hope."_

Vanille was unsure about whether he heard her or not, suspecting that he was already fast asleep. Nonetheless, a small smile appeared on the boy's face.


End file.
